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What is Local Spending on Interest?

In FY 2025, local government outlays on interest were $74 billion.

Estimated spending on interest for FY 2026 is $80 billion.

Local Interest Analysis  

 

This page shows the current trends in US Local outlays on interest.

Recent US Local Spending on Interest

Recent Local Interest Spending

Chart S.71l: Recent Local Interest Spending

Local spending on interest was increasing in the late 2000s reaching $60 billion in 2010. In the first half of the 2010s local spending on interest kept below $65 billion, but increased to $70 billion in the late 2010s.

Local interest spending for FY2025 was estimated at $74 billion.

Recent Local Int Spend as Pct GDP

Chart S.72l: Recent Local Int Spend as Pct GDP

Viewed from a GDP perspective, local spending on interest in the late 2000s increased from 0.36 percent GDP to 0.41 percent GDP in 2009. In the 2010s local spending on interest has steadily declined, flattening out at 0.3 percent of GDP in the late 2010s.

In the early 2020s local interest spending declined to 0.26 percent GDP.

Local spending on interest for FY2025 was estimated at 0.24 percent GDP.

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US Local Spending on Interest Since 1900

Local Interest since 1900

Chart S.73l: Local Interest since 1900

Local government spending on interest at the start of the 20th century was 0.26 percent of GDP and increased steadily for the next 30 years, hitting 0.52 percent GDP in 1929. In the Great Depression local spending on interest began a sharp increase, hitting 1.09 percent GDP in 1933. For the rest of the 1930s and through World War II local spending on interest declined sharply, passing 0.51 percent GDP in 1940 and bottoming out at 0.11 percent GDP in 1951.

Starting in 1952 local spending on interest began a sustained increase, hitting 0.21 percent GDP in 1960, 0.3 percent GDP in 1974, 0.3 percent GDP in 1983 and peaking at 0.48 percent GDP in 1987.

In the 1990s and 2000s, local spending on interest declined, down to 0.4 percent GDP in 2000.

In the 2010s local spending on interest has steadily declined, down to 0.31 percent GDP in 2020.

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Spending Data Sources

Spending data is from official government sources.

Gross Domestic Product data comes from US Bureau of Economic Analysis and measuringworth.com.

Detailed table of spending data sources here.
Medicare breakdown here; Medicaid breakdown here.

Federal spending data begins in 1792.

State and local spending data begins in 1820.

State and local spending data for individual states begins in 1957.

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Debt Now:  $38,380,536,147,996.03
Debt 2/2020:$23,409,959,150,243.63

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Data Sources for 2021_2031:

Sources for 2021:

GDP, GO: GDP, GO Sources
Federal: Fed. Budget: Hist. Tables 3.2, 5.1, 7.1
State and Local: State and Local Gov. Finances
'Guesstimated' by projecting the latest change in reported spending forward to future years

Sources for 2031:

GDP, GO: GDP, GO Sources
Federal: Fed. Budget: Hist. Tables 3.2, 5.1, 7.1
State and Local: State and Local Gov. Finances
'Guesstimated' by projecting the latest change in reported spending forward to future years

> data sources for other years
> data update schedule.

Blog

Federal Budget for FY27 Released

On April 4, 2026, we updated usgovernmentspending.com with the numbers from the Public Budget Database in the Budget of the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2027

Here is how headline budget estimates for the upcoming FY 2027 fiscal year have changed since the release of the FY 2025 budget in Winter 2024. There were no budgetary estimates in the budget documents for the FY 2026 budget.

Federal Budget Changes for 2027
$ billionEstimate for 2027
in FY2025 Budget
Estimate for 2027
in FY2027 Budget
Change
Federal Outlays$7,696.6$8,092.9 +$569.1
Federal Receipts$6,186.2$5,921.0+$279.1
Federal Deficit$1,510.3$2,171.9+$290.0

You can see line item changes from budget to budget here. You can compare budget estimates with actuals here.

Account level spending estimates through FY 2031 come from the Outlays table in the Public Budget Database and were updated on usgovernmentspending.com on April 4, 2026.

Account level budget authority estimates through FY 2031 come from the Budget Authority table in the Public Budget Database and were updated on usgovernmentspending.com on April 4, 2026. 

US GDP for 2025 Released
On March 15, 2026 usgovernmentspending.com updated its GDP series with the latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis ...

US, State Population Update for 2025
On January 21, 2026 the US Census Bureau released its US national and state population estimates for July 1, 2025.  On February 7, 2026 usgovernmentspending.com updated its US and state popula ...

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